Quality Engineer - Design / CM Focus

Job Summary

The Quality Engineer – Design Focus has the following responsibilities when design and development activities are being conducted: ensuring design assurance, regulatory compliance, and mission reliability of electro-optical laser systems. This role partners with Optical Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Mechanical Engineering, Systems Engineering, and Manufacturing to ensure quality is embedded from concept through qualification and production transition. This individual will drive key quality initiatives, will maintain enterprise procedures, support the design process, creation of training plans and process monitoring documents, coach others on enterprise processes, and lead and engage in continuous improvement activities. The ideal candidate will have a broad understanding of quality systems and processes within an opto-mechanical environment.

KEY RESPONSIBILITIES 

• Facilitate formal design reviews (SRR, PDR, CDR, TRR, PRR) ensuring objective evidence of design maturity and risk mitigation.
• Support configuration management and baseline control activities.
• Backup to Configuration Management (CM) for managing ECOs through the change process
• Ensures all drawings are active in PLM prior to start of work
• Lead and facilitate change board activities.
• Lead and facilitate DFMEA, Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), and Hazard Analyses.
• Ensure compliance with applicable laser safety standards (e.g., ANSI Z136, MIL-STD-1425).
• Monitor adherence to plans and schedules, mitigate risks, and achieve set milestones
• Report to leadership on business performance, including action plans to improve business execution and the status of strategic initiatives.
• Develop process metrics/KPIs for new products and processes.
• Present quality metrics, providing assessments and actions to drive improvement
• Strong analytical and problem-solving abilities
• Provide guidance for classifying and final determination of nonconformances.
• Investigate and lead root cause analysis for nonconformances.
• Issue corrective actions as necessary
• Maintain, train and coach others on quality processes and procedures

REQUIRED CAPABILITIES

• U.S. Citizenship required due to government contract requirement
• Excellent organizational and time management skills
• Detailed understanding of DoD industry quality processes including Nonconforming Material Control, Cause and Corrective Action, First Article Inspection, Drawing/Planning Review and Approval, Design Review and Approval, Classification of Hardware Characteristics, and Purchase Order Quality flow downs
• Familiar with risk management strategies such as DFMEA/PFMEA
• Relevant experience supporting the production of high-complexity opto-mechanical products
• Familiarity with AS9100, ISO9001, or other quality management systems
• Application of Lean/Six Sigma or other structured continuous improvement processes 
• Knowledge and understanding of engineering drawings and specifications
• Experience in investigating technical issues and nonconformance’s to determine root causes and implement effective corrective actions
• Proficient in MS Office
• Good written and verbal communication skills to allow effective communication with both technical and non-technical teams
• Ability to work additional hours, evenings and weekends, as needed to support customer commitments

EDUCATION/ EXPERIENCE

• Bachelor’s degree and minimum of 4 years of prior relevant experience.
• In lieu of degree, minimum 8 years of experience with increasing levels of responsibility, including experience successfully managing various projects. 
• Experience in a government contracting/manufacturing environment. 

Nothing in this job description restricts management’s right to assign or reassign duties and responsibilities to this job at any time. This job description reflects management’s assignment of essential functions; it does not prescribe or restrict the tasks that may be assigned.